Despite the heat of the midday sun, the pack took off at a very fast pace for the day’s 146km ride all the way to Al Bustan village in the heart of old Muscat. That didn’t prevent two riders from taking off from the pack at 4km: Bobbie Traksel (Champion Systems)—who was also present in yesterday’s breakaway—and Tomohiro Kinoshita (Japan).

The leaders went from a 55” advantage at 6km to a maximum 5’40 at 27km. The first intermediate sprint (32km) was won by Traksel in front of Kinoshita. The pack, led by Argos-Shimano rider Marcel Kittel (ARG)—who was hungry to capture a point in the sprinters’ standings—remained 5’20 adrift. The gap stabilized at around 5’, as Cannondale and Argos-Shimano took control of the chase.

Once on the long straight towards Muscat, facing the wind, the gap increased again and reached 6’25 at 62km. As the two escapees closed in on the first climb of the day, the gap dropped down seriously. With 25km to go, they only had a 30” lead. Climbing up Al Hamriya, Traksel was the first to be dropped. It was then Kinoshita’s turn to be caught by the hungry pack. Paul Voss (Team NetApp-Endura) broke away in the last moments of the climb and reached the top in first position with a 17” advantage over Peter Kennaugh (Sky), Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and the peloton. The pack remained bunched all the way to the second bonus sprint (135.5km) claimed by Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana) ahead of Richie Porte (Sky) and Kennaugh.

On the second climb up Al Jissah, several groups of riders were dropped while Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R-La Mondiale) gave it a go at the front. Eventually, Jesus Hernandez (Saxo-Tinkoff) was the first to the top in front of Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Nocentini. A group of around 50 riders powered to the finish on the long descent. On the final straight, three riders attacked with under a kilometer to go: Martin Elmiger (IAM), Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Leopard) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). But they were to be caught and dropped by the man of the day, Cannondale's Peter Sagan. The Slovakian flew to his first success of the fourth Tour of Oman after winning a stage last year. He took the stage by five seconds over Gallopin and Elmiger.

Sagan also captured the overall leader’s red jersey and has a 9-second advantage over Gallopin and 11 seconds over Elmiger. He also leads the best young rider standings. Meanwhile, former race leader Kittel, who finished the day 121st, over 5 minutes adrift, remains the leader of the points’ classification and will therefore wear the green jersey for Stage 3. Traksel remains the most aggressive rider.